19 posts tagged “mountains”
Our next camping site wasn't quite as scenic, but it was still beautiful, set beside a tiny out-of-the-way chapel, near Ancient Lousi and a Temple of Artemis. There was plenty of wildlife though - lizards, grasshoppers, etc. Thankfully I didn't see any big spiders.
The views from where we camped on the first night were amazing. We had a mesh roof on the tent, so we could lie in our sleeping bags and watch the stars - I even saw two shooting stars! The views were amazing, night or day, it didn't matter.
Last week I went on a short tour of Northern Peloponnese, mostly in the Achaea region. One thing I'll say about this area is you will never be short of a chapel to pray in, or in my case, camp by. Over the four days we covered many mountains and saw dozens of chapels and churches, some of which were incredibly beautiful, one in particular, but I'll get to that later.
This weekend just gone I returned to the area of Fokida for the Charmaena celebrations, for the second year running.
Charmaena is a part of Amfissa where the local tanners lived and worked, in part because of the conveniently located water spring. One of them, Konstantis, apparently lost his wife to a lightning strike near the spring. He died shortly thereafter, and legend has it he haunted the spring and the whole area and would walk around on Saturday nights, howling and dragging chains. Pretty standard haunting, of course. Except this one, like many other supernatural beings in Greek folklore, wasn't all bad. He became the unofficial protector of tanners in the area, and kept other, less friendly ghosts at bay.
It's this legend that is reconstructed in Amfissa to this day. And this is merely the excuse, because even though the Charmaena Ghost is there, as an impressive nine foot, eerie bulk (that looks like a Lovecraftian muppet), but also two of the ghosts he found to protect his favourite tanners.
There are various processions of the most Dionysian of creatures - people dressed in sheep fleeces, with blackened faces and bells strapped to them run through the streets howling, ringing their bells, beating makeshift drums, some even have ram horns on. There's also a sombre, languid rhythmic procession of torch-bearing maidens in make-up, along with an assortment of ghosts (the sheet-over-the-head variety), witches (the pointy-hat variety) and other creatures of the night.
The groups converge, reaching on of the town squares and are joined by the three ghosts. The noise and energy that results is astounding. These are mountain people who spend most of the year pent up, repressed and anhedonic. This is the week they can let it all out, and out it all comes! In the process, fulfilling their needs serve to bring this incredible event to life, and to keep what appears to be one of the last surviving rites of Dionysos alive. And all this, not twenty minutes' drive from Delphi - nominally, Apollo's Panhellenic sanctuary, but interestingly enough, the centre of Dionysos' worship during the winter months.
Meteora is a collection of monasteries built on sandstone rock pillars which loom over the (more recently built) town of Kalambaka. The photograph to the left is walkway to the first place we visited - The Holy Monastery of Varlaam, the second largest in the 'complex'. The history within these walls is amazing, and the museum was fascinating, with illustrated manuscripts and centuries old embroidered robes. We hung around until the group of Russian tourists left, so we could clearly look at the frescos in the chapel, which depicted some pretty horrific things, such as the journey to hell. There was also an immense barrel, which I like to believe was once upon a time filled with wine.
The monasteries are all still in use, as a result, out of respect, people are asked to be "correctly attired", so that means no bare arms or legs and women must wear a skirt. At Varlaam there was a monk who seemed more than happy to chat with the tourists, so long as they spoke Greek (yet another reason I'd like to improve my language skills).
We then drove up to The Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron, which as the most famous of the monasteries was overcrowded with far too many children so we gave up and moved towards yet another monastery (actually, nunnery in this case, I think it was The Holy Monastery of Saint Stephen), but I was knackered and hungry to the point of being ready to faint, so we opted for food over getting thee to a nunnery.
We drove down towards Kalambaka, but due to the season not starting
until the following day, there was not much choice, however what we
discovered was a diamond in the rough. Run by an old married couple,
with a giant cat (seriously, this thing was huge and totally had the
"I'm starving, feed me" look going on, despite the fact that he
obviously wasn't) roaming from table to table. There was the obligatory
Spuds 'n' Salad combo and little else, but the old guy was grilling
meats by the roadside, so an order was made. It was pork, but I was
hungry and it was delicious. Greece has totally ruined me as a
vegetarian. As the lunch run was finishing and there were still a
couple of spare (home made) sausages, the 'chef' came over and asked us
if we wanted one. Full, we declined, but he laughed, pulled it off the
spit and slammed it on the table. Good gods is was tasty!
Our stomachs filled we drove back up and decided to visit The Rousanou Monastery,
simply because it had the latest opening times. No longer filled with
monks, the monastery is filled with nuns (and young ones at that). I
tell you if I were to believe in god and give my life to his greater
glory, I'd want to be there. I'm not religious, nor particularly
spiritual, but this place has a reverential feel to it that you can't
escape.
Once we finished
here we got in the car and drove Athens-wards, and with more than a bit
of good fortune, the rain started to fall almost immediately.
Our next destination was Metsovo, where we decided to spring for a hotel as a) it's quite damp and humid in this area which makes camping very difficult and b) we were all in dire need of a shower. As it was still too early for checking in, we found a taverna and had some lunch - local noodles with metsovone cheese = heavenly! After lunch we ambled (not very far, I might add) up the road and checked into Hotel Egnatia for a totally reasonable price considering how posh it looked and how central it was (the photo to the right is the view from our balcony). That said, I would have happily paid through the nose just to be able to shower and use a proper toilet, especially after having nearly done a somersault down the embankment at our campsite with my pants around my ankles while trying to pee and keep an eye out for wildlife. Anyway, we all quickly made use of the shower facilities and the soft beds!
Mid-afternoon we left the hotel and walked around able to smell the smoked scent
that permeates the village now that we weren't smoke scented (care of
the campfires) ourselves. We visited the church (just before it shut),
filled with beautiful icons and offerings dating back over the years.
This was followed by moving from café to bar to taverna before heading back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
In the morning, we were up bright and early and showered again (simply because we could) enjoyed rather good coffee and the buffet breakfast before wandering back to the town centre and then to spend over €100 on the local cheese and noodles before heading onto the last place on our holiday itinerary - Meteora.
We left Ioannina and drove north to Zagori, a collection of villages on either side of the Vikos Gorge, not too far from the Albanian border. Many of the villages don't allow cars within them, and even if they did, driving on the steeply inclined cobbles wouldn't be much good for your car, though it's a damn good work out for you!
We planned to stay at Aghios Nikolas, as my boyfriend and I camped there on our previous visit. It's up a long muddied road, far from traffic (well traffic on four wheels, there's plenty of animal life around there - including the giant cow-belled goat). We checked it was still a viable option and found it had been built up since our visit in May, there was stonework around the tree (thankfully now mostly sans giant spiders), a path and table all made from local stone. All looking good we went off in search of tea. Our first choice in Dilofo was shut, so we drove around the villages until we found a small café/taverna in Kipi, complete with open fire and a bunch of curious locals. We sipped our coffees and had some rather tasty marrow pie for dinner before heading back to set up camp. The sun had long been set, so our source of light was the car headlights. Unfortunately we left them on too long and they drained the battery. There was nothing we could do, so we lit a fire and opened a bottle of wine.
The night was really, really f*cking cold.
Despite sleeping in good tents, with correctly graded sleeping bags,
matts and all that malarky, I spent a good few hours physically
shivering from the cold. Brrr. Not nice. When my boyfriend got up to light a fire in the morning, he wrapped his sleeping bag around me, I stopped shivering and nodded off to sleep.
After a few hours delay trying to sort out the car, it was getting on and we weren't in much of a mood for a six hour hike (not to mention, we didn't have enough daylight time left), we opted for the touristy approach. We stopped at some of the bridges the area is famed for. Next it was onto Sterna, a lovely café in Kapesovo, where every last little nook and cranny is used to store their wares - dried teas, herbs and mushrooms, local honey, jar upon jar of spoon sweets, handmade jewellery and various handicrafts. It hadn't been open, but a local man saw us walk past and opened it for us, calling the actual shop keeper to come and tend us. As there was no fire inside, we sat basking in the sun, sipping our mountain tea with honey.
After our tea and purchasing various items to take home, we drove
around a while and ended up in Tsepelovo for what was one of the best
meals I've had, ever. Fact. We were all very hungry, mountain air will
do that to you, so we ordered accordingly. There was a very tasty
salad; a local cheese dip, somewhat similar to my beloved tyrokafteri
but creamier; a delicious vegetable pie, filled with various greens,
the obligatory local pie of Zagori (for which the area is famed - it's
bridges and pies in this neck of the woods); some saganaki, which while
I swore I'd never eat saganaki again, they offered Mestovone saganaki
and I was sold. There were also some local sausages, which I admit I
did have a taste of. Just writing this out is making me hungry again!
Despite being in somewhat of a food coma, we made our way to Monodendri where we walked down to the now abandoned Monastery of Agia Paraskevi, which offers spectacular views of the gorge. We then made our way towards the caves, each stopping at our own spot where we could no longer continue (as the paths are thin to non-existent at times). We walked back as the sun was going down and quite frankly I can think of nothing more terrifying than having to walk blind when there is a kilometre long drop should you put one step wrong.
We were all pretty much beat by this time, but it was far too early to
call it a night, so we stopped by the same café/taverna in Kipi (as
nothing else seemed to be open, due to the season not starting for
another couple of days) for some coffee and warmth before heading back
to the campsite and falling into 'bed' after huddling around the fire.
We were so tired, we didn't even bother opening the bottle of wine!
As we were prepared, we all slept a little better, wrapped up in thermals and various layers of clothing, with added clothes in the sleeping bags to pad them up. It was still cold, but at least I wasn't shivering much. In the morning, there was coffee and de-camping before driving to see a couple more bridges and then sadly leaving the un-hiked gorge behind as we moved onto our next destination - Metsovo.
All three of us woke early without the aid of goats, made coffee and cleaned up our campsite - this chapel was upscale as it even had a tap with running water! Oh such luxury. The view in the morning was stunning, so clear, bright and quiet despite being close to a road, and a paved one at that. First stop was the ancient site of Dodoni, which much like Delphi was once famed for it's oracle (the oldest in Hellenic history).
Bad timing saw us arrive when the site was filled with a bunch of kids
from Thessaloniki and a large bus load of pensioners. Can you guess who
was worse behaved? Yep, that'd be the old folks. Can you imagine coming
to an ancient site, filled with history (your history, I might add) and think it's a good place to pick mountain greens[1]? That's not all, how about denying it when the tarted up security guard calls you on it? Gah! Seriously f*cked up. Kudos to the guard who gave the guilty a right verbal walloping.
Our next destination was Ioannina, we caught the ferry over to the island within the lake, and walked around for a while before stopping for lunch - frogs legs, shrimps, trout and various other delicious foodstuffs. We then caught the ferry back and made our way north, after stopping to fill up on wine, of course! Next stop - Zagori.
[1] For those not in the know, it's relatively common for
Greeks (usually of a certain age) to collect the various greens growing
on the road/hill/mountain side and use them in their cooking - horts is
a common pie filling or is often be served on its own as a side dish,
seasoned with lemon juice.
Our first stop on the way up north was a common stopping point for us - Itea. We left Athens in time to get a good couple of hours to wander around a surprisingly quiet Delphi before moving on to Itea and dinner before spending some time sitting on our friend's balcony listening to the sea and chatting amongst ourselves.
